Tag Archives: Holiday

I’m riding the “bad parent” wave each time we go out this summer. TinyPants starts high school in September and at age 11 has asked for a number of things that I’ve agreed to despite parental tutting. Here’s why:

She’s always had a strong sense of identity and year 6 has contained some big knocks for her. Instead of the last year of primary school being a fanfare of goodbyes, she counted down the days until she could be rid of bitchy cliques & a head teacher that she openly hated (strong words, but she had big boots to fill & did little to endear herself), and then there were SATS.

Since September, everything was building up to these bloody exams. Art, music, creative writing, science – all the things that made TinyPants love school went by the wayside. Maths drills, spellings, & exam papers were the daily grind – after which there were hours of tearful homework.

“Do your best & we’ll be as proud as always” we kept telling her. In the end, she sat in pain for 4 solid days doing her best (she was allowed to get up frequently, but allowed no extra time. Fearful that she wouldn’t finish, she didn’t take breaks. By day 4, she had a roll of physio tape strapped to her). Previous end of year reports have been a joy to read with comments given across the curriculum; this year one page was given with a table highlighted in red for each of the maths & english exams – “did not achieve”. The pass mark is 100, in most she scored 98 & in one 94. No “how I enjoyed my year” comment, but a “how could I have improved in my exams”. In contrast, her sister has a high school report with gold stars for effort & all subjects treated equally.

I was furious. My baby has fought past being born so tiny that she lived in an incubator; she fought apnea; she worked so hard to read (something that didn’t come naturally); she has emotional intelligence to rival most adults; she is a young carer; she has mentally prepared herself to be in daily physical pain & smiles through it; she worked like stink to pass those exams and yet she was deemed insufficient by a margin of 2 marks. She didn’t see how close she was – she saw “failure”. The piece of my mind that I’d like to give Gove, Morgan, & Greening may leave me without a mind. This narrowing of the curriculum and constant testing is stamping out the creative sparks that we’ll need in years to come.

So she asked to rebel, much like getting a statement haircut after a big break up. Step 1 was pink hair and I agreed to dye it for the final day. Step 2 was leaving primary behind – I genuinely feared her going out in a blaze of verbal glory, but she took the high ground and walked out with her head high (mentally flipping the bird as she left). And that was that.

She’s using the summer to find herself & that includes strange hair colours. We’re watching a pre-highschool reinvention of herself & it’s fascinating. She’s ditched the little kid clothes for older, but sensible shirts & jeans. I’m watching me grow up from a distance, but with a lot more self-esteem! Yes, we’ll have to get busy with the Head & Shoulders to remove the colour before school starts (eye roll), but for these 6 weeks the girls are allowed to be their genuine selves, whoever that may be.

We’ve just got back from a week at Disneyland where she asked to ride ALL of the rollercoasters on hoiday. I feel sick letting her put her body through that kind of strain – she’s already in pain most days & her back is a big culprit. Ibuprofen, TENS, & physio tape already feature quite regularly. Now, I could insist that she protect her joints at all costs, but shit, what right do I have to sap the joy from her life? She knows that adult life is going to hurt, but the pair of us are adrenalin junkies. At her age & into my teens I rode the coasters, I rode horses, I cornered so hard on my motorbike I could pick daisies with my teeth. So each time she wanted to go on a gut wrenching ride off Mr Geek went & rode with her.

Did it kill her? No. Ok, near the end of the holiday Mr Geek had to carry her out of bed & she gained wheels just like mum for part of the day as she couldn’t stand. Most days we paced quite well, the day before we’d thrown caution to the wind, but had the “best day evaar”.

Hell, even I rode a coaster – Mr Geek scoped it out and made sure it had head & back supports, I spent the previous day resting, he lifted me in – I screamed for the entire ride (on which my kneecap moved completely out & I pulled out both shoulders) – he lifted me back out & helped me pop things back, soothed the muscle spasms, then I rested for two days. All that pain for just 5 minutes? Yes. Totally worth it for feeling alivefor just a while.

TinyPants looks at me and knows what’s coming – right now she wants to live as much life as possible instead of snatching 5 minutes of flying.

So, yes I’m letting her dye her hair far earlier than I ever thought I would, but it’s a small price to pay for the catharsis that its brought her. And as for Beanpole, well there’s no hair dye there – her genuie self blossomed at high school and my meganerd is blossoming into the intellectual fangirl that I expected, but she deserves a post all of her own.

Note: I’ve spoken a lot about pain here – for more info on Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, please read this post.

I didn’t want to move when I woke up in Dante’s 7th circle of joint pain hell.

I didn’t want to keep down breakfast

I didn’t want to sit in the car for 3 1/2 hours to Calais

I didn’t want to wake up regularly gasping as we braked & my back flew into spasm

I objected to paying extortionate prices for toll roads that had appalling service stops

I didn’t want to lay curved into a contorted angle on the train whilst it rocked me side to side & scattered my ribs

I didn’t want to remain in the car for a further 2 hours to drive home (see waking up above)

I didn’t want to travel on a flare day. But I did. And now I’m home in our bed set up just for us having had a bath in my lovely accessible bathroom and a cuddle with the cats.

There’s no place like home.Addition:

What made me flare so badly today? It was a combination of being in the car the previous day for nigh on 6 hours, then staying in the worst hotel we’d ever booked. The Sejours & Affaires clairemarias in Reims.

Here is the brochure photo of the 1 bedroom apartment from Booking.com – this is clearly listed under “facilities for disabled guests”.

And another of the kitchenette

So, we were expecting basic, but clean and functional as a stopover. This was billed as a wheelchair accessible apartment which we double checked by email & relieved confirmation of – this roughly translates to “is on the ground floor & has no stairs”.

This is my photo:

Aside from smelling distinctly of the goat farm (?!), the wall paint was peeling, the cabinets were grubby & the kitchenette and general location reminded me of when Mr Geek & I shared a student flat. In its favour, the WiFi was excellent (so, yes, very much like our flat). We slept on the metal sofa bed which had a mattress approximately the depth of a Kardashian which promptly instigated my shoulder coming out as I turned, my pelvis twisting, & a nasty clunk in my neck that made my hand go tingly. I eventually fell asleep laying flat on my back with my legs in a full lotus to lock my hips in place.My magic touch with hotels was missing on this one. By the next morning, I wanted my Ruby Slippers.

I didn’t want to move when I woke up in Dante’s 7th circle of joint pain hell.

I didn’t want to keep down breakfast

I didn’t want to sit in the car for 3 1/2 hours to Calais

I didn’t want to wake up regularly gasping as we braked & my back flew into spasm

I objected to paying extortionate prices for toll roads that had appalling service stops

I didn’t want to lay curved into a contorted angle on the train whilst it rocked me side to side & scattered my ribs

I didn’t want to remain in the car for a further 2 hours to drive home (see waking up above)

I didn’t want to travel on a flare day. But I did. And now I’m home in our bed set up just for us having had a bath in my lovely accessible bathroom and a cuddle with the cats.

There’s no place like home.Addition:

What made me flare so badly today? It was a combination of being in the car the previous day for nigh on 6 hours, then staying in the worst hotel we’d ever booked.

Here is the brochure photo of the 1 bedroom apartment:

And another of the kitchenette

So, we were expecting basic, but clean and functional as a stopover. This was billed as a wheelchair accessible apartment which we double checked by email & relieved confirmation of – this roughly translates to “is on the ground floor & has no stairs”.

This is my photo:

Aside from smelling distinctly of the goat farm (?!), the wall paint was peeling, the cabinets were grubby & the kitchenette and general location reminded me of when Mr Geek & I shared a student flat. In its favour, the WiFi was excellent (so, yes, very much like our flat). We slept on the metal sofa bed which had a mattress approximately the depth of a Kardashian which promptly instigated my shoulder coming out as I turned, my pelvis twisting, & a nasty clunk in my neck that made my hand go tingly. I eventually fell asleep laying flat on my back with my legs in a full lotus to lock my hips in place.My magic touch with hotels was missing on this one. By the next morning, I wanted my Ruby Slippers.

Thursday was mummy’s turn to choose the activity for the day. Mr Geek had been very vocal about wanting to return to one of the German baths during our stay, so we’d done a little research on which one would be most suitable for all of us.

Note: the photos on this post of Vita Classica are from the Therme website as they do other permit cameras inside (good thing too!)

3km from our hotel was the Casseopeia Spa which had excellent reviews & welcomed children. It was “textile free” which would mean letting it all hang free, but when in Rome etc. I started searching for more information on accessibility, but discovered that it is currently closed for refurbishment until October. Bum. I did a little more searching and found an alternative spa in Bad Krozingen called Vita Classica.

Interestingly, many of the reviews on TripAdvisor bemoaned the priority given to those with disabilities… cue cartoon style double take. Although mildly concerned that it might be a bit clinical, and rather relieved that they require bathing suits in the Therme (families cannot enter the sauna area other than Saturdays when it is “family day” as that area is textile free), we decided to give it a whirl. Just to double check, I used the Spa’s online chat facility to make sure I could get in.

The spa was about 8km from our hotel in Schallstadt, so I suggested that we make use of the amazing network of super smooth cycleways and get on our bikes. I’m feeling super confident that my wheelchair bike is up to roaming further from our base & this was an excellent test for the battery life (we ended up through a few interesting navigation decisions riding over 20k during the day which added to a battery that had already done a good few km during the week, taking the range of 1 of the two lithium batteries to just under 30km!).

Our fears about the spa being clinical were unfounded, although disabled facilities are indeed located 1st and there are a good number of prominent accessible changing & showering rooms. On entry, you can either take your own wheelchair in, or leave you chair & make use of one of the poolside chairs which means your chair stays dry!
There are a number of pools with most having a temperature of 34° (one has a temp of 29°, and another at 36°)

A static hoist is available for one of the ‘Blue Room’ pools which doubles as a water therapy pool (at 34°), and a mobile hoist is available if required. As the kids were keen to move between pools, we opted for Mr Geek lifting me from the chair onto the pool steps & bum shuffling down into the water with my waist float strapped on, then reversing this process to get back out.

Through the blue room is the ‘hot pool’ at 36° where we spent a good 30 mins just floating with Mr Geek massaging my neck whilst the girls enjoyed the calm. It’s too warm to swim, so instead you just floating about allowing the warm water to soothe everything. One mildly worrying thing of note was there was need for them to have a sign printed stating no sex in the pool or showers! How many times does that need to have happened to warrant a metal sign?!?

The two outside pools were slightly cooler at 34° (and outside, so felt cooler) and were more invigorating. The first was a round pool with a variety of jets that slowly floated you around in circles. The jets ranged from weird tiny bubbles that turned the water fizzy, to stand up jacuzzi bubbles, to a lay down full body bed of bubbles (Beanpole & TinyPants made a request to remain there indefinitely. Nice try kids). I was particularly taken with this pool & happily floated in circles in the fizzy warm water for ages. The added weightlessness from the bubbles served to allow me more movement and I could gently cycle my legs releasing my hips & back.

The second one outside pool was more of a round robin massage pool with shoulder water jets, sit & stand jacuzzi bubbles, a gentle rapid, and massaging waterfalls. The bubbles & jersey are cycled so not everything us on at once and people move around on the sound of a bingbong noise. It was in here, that I experienced a waterfall massage on my lower back & hips – by using my float & Mr Geek holding me, the water fell directly onto my lower back & pelvis at such a rate the my then dislodged SI was battered back into place with an audible clunk that we heard over the noise of the falls! It was deliriously good.

The weather began to turn & knowing that it would take a little over 30 minutes to cycle back, we headed out to get changed.

By the time we left it was starting to shower, but this slowed so off we went. We even had time to stop for a quick family by the river selfie because we DEFINITELY WERE NOT LOST.

In fact we were. We failed to follow a simple cycle route so ended up going all around the houses which was all fine and dandy until it rained. Properly rained.

Wet, cold, and looking like I’d entered a wet tshirt competition, we arrived back at our hotel with two very angry children who were placated by dinner & as much ice cream that they could stomach (a lot) and all was right with the world again.

So a spa day and a cycle on Leonardo with this view totally balances out the horrible weather and my left hip popping out after TinyPants climbed onto the bed for a cuddle spawning a whole night of tens & no sleep. But seriously, look at this view!

Like this:

Four generations ago, my paternal family made a long journey by foot to Canada from Germany. They originally lived in a small village near the top of a mountain in the Black Forest bearing their name. Until I married Mr Geek, I too was a Feldberg.

I don’t know a great deal about the background of my paternal family and with the magnifying glass of a disabling genetic condition, I grabbed the opportunity to connect with my past with both hands.
Feldberg stands with the highest peak of the mountains in the Black forest. Unlike the mountains of stereotype, it’s covered in trees until you reach the peak where instead of rock & bare nothings, it’s grass; as the name suggests “Feld-berg” = “Field-mountain”.

To get to the peak, you can walk up the wooded, or meadow pathways. Or, like us, you can take the Feldberbahn to the top. In the summer months the ski lift chairs are replaced with gondolas which are not only enclosed & safe for children, but accessible for wheelchairs! They even stopped the cable cars & popped on a ramp to help me in.

It was a beautiful ascent even if the weather was cloudy & at 2200ft at the entry to the cable cars, flipping cold! (13° as opposed to 23° at the hotel). By the time we reached the top, we were a little over 3000ft above sea level and the wind let us know that we were on top of the world!

From up here, you can see across the Alps and breathe in the smell of the forest. Someone recently suggested that no one likes for trees & would want to protect them – well, take a look at this view & choke on your words.

It’s difficult to genuinely give an idea of what it was like to be up there, but if you have (or want to download) the free Google Cardboard Camera app, you can download my panorama photos here (The new Cardboard camera let’s you take a photo in 360° but also records the sound to go with it to enhance the experience)

Unfortunately, the Tower which contains the Ham Museum (yes, you read that correctly) is not wheelchair accessible, so I sat in the sheltered of the entrance. Whilst I was sitting admiring the view, the clinking sound of bells arrived and holy sound of musicals, a herd of billed cows ambled to the grass at the top of the mountain & stared at the visitors with the look of disinterested confusion only a cow would give.

Taking the cable car back down the mountain, we went in search for lunch. Walking past the more touristy places & gift shops around Hotel Feldberg, we found a much older guesthouse just along the road. We were very pleased to have ventured a little further as we were greeted by the owner who happily made space for us & my chair. It was enormously inaccessible (I had to only hope that I didn’t need the loo as there was no way I was getting in there!), but oh my word the food was incredible!

As someone who doesn’t fate well with onions, or heavy meat dishes, I’m racing through my Omeprazole at a rate of knots, but the Bavarian meatloaf with roasted potato was soft & tasted beautiful. Vaguely like posh spam. My waistline is suffering! I’m even able to enjoy the local beer as most varieties are available as alcohol free & taste just as good! This is great news & means I can sip away & not interfere with my daily doses of poison.

Sadly, our visit was cut a little shorter than I’d hoped as I was feeling lightheaded & exhausted. A combination of altitude, carbs, pain, and overdoing it kicked me up the arse and I lost the ability to function any further.

After a final loo stop & a dose of painkillers, we headed back to the car as it started to rain lightly with me making noises about wanting to visit the Feldberg schnapps museum on the way home….

… I woke up with 5 minutes to go before we reached our hotel. Ah. Bugger. However, I went to bed tonight contemplating where to hang our Feldberg cuckoo clock. I may not know any more about our family, but I do have an image to attach to the spattering of stories I have heard.

A version of this post can also be seen on TripAdvisor.
We visited Les Trois Forêts as a group of 7, with two children under 12 and five adults. Four of our party had varying physical impairments (using a variety of mobility aids from sticks to an actuve user wheelchair), and two who are Autistic. As such, we pre-booked well in advance choosing a VIP cabin highlighted as accessible for those with mobility needs to sleep 8 mid distance from the main centre (cabin 709).

Communication

With Les Trois Forêts being less than an hour away from the borders of Germany & Luxembourg, it is not a surprise to find that all signs are primarily in French with German translation. Most staff speak either. We made a concerted effort to speak in French & when we failed, the staff were happy to translate more complex requirements to English (at one point making great use of the translation app on my phone!). Like most places, a valiant attempt that ends in them just telling you to speak English is much better received than not trying.

Whilst I thoroughly recommend the Michel Thomas method for learning some basics, Google Translate is also your friend!

Contact with the outside world is limited as the phone signal in many areas is absent & WiFi is at a premium. There is public WiFi in the main centre & in the play barn, but it us rather slow. We sent a few texts home just to confirm we were ok, but the disconnection from technology was rather welcome after the initial withdrawal! (Even these blogs were written in the late evenings & stored away until connection to the world was restored).

Noise, Comfort, & Bugs

The main centre was only 1 bus stop away (busses run every hourish around the main circuit with 8 stops on the circuit), and yet there was very little noise near our cabin aside from birds and local church bells. Peace is not at a premium here, and despite housing over 1000 chalets, it didn’t feel crowded until you got to the centre.

The cabin has an enormous living space with an open plan kitchen, plenty of soft seating and two large dining tables (one inside & one outside) – these were used extensively in the evening for playing cards. The soft seated area has a large TV with news channels in a number of languages and several local French & German channels. This also has a DVD player. There are also TVs in both double rooms.

Although we stayed at the end of July /August, the heat was not oppressive & many of the days were overcast. When the sun came out & temperatures were around 27° there is plenty of respite from this in the forest walk. There is no air conditioning in the cabins, so we arrived with some desk fans – these serve several purposes: they kept us all cool at night & deter mosquitos as the breeze moves the carbon dioxide breathed out around and makes it harder for them to find you.

Having read many of the reviews on TripAdvisor, we packed a plug-in insect trap for each bedroom, expecting a deluge of flying beasties. In fact, with the same sticky strip plugged in for the whole 7 nights, only a small number were caught and we were bitten once, if that (and can’t be sure if that was at night).

Our cabin was however, not one that looks directly onto the lake, so that may have an impact on the volume of insects.

We were visited by a fair few insects, a surprising number of baby frogs, several cats, and a multitude of moths ranging for tiny pale ones to literal behemoths!

Food, Drink, & Entertainment

We ate out a number of times during our stay. We were rather confused by the reviews bemoaning how expensive the food was – the prices are quite typical of the area and the quality was really quite good considering the volume of people served. The pizza resturant was a pleasant surprise with freshly made pasta & even allowed me to order a children’s portion. The all you can eat buffet had a good selection and was restocked continually until end of service (the kids & adults were very taken with the ice cream & chocolate fountain!).

The on-site Carrefour was mildly.more expensive than the one 15 minutes down the road, but on a par for things like fresh baguettes, milk, & butter.

One thing we discovered was the delivery service where for €25 they will deliver a whole rotisserie chicken with garlic & rosemary roasted potatoes to your cabin (or you can take them away). They cited that this feeds 4-6 people. We ordered 2 to be sure and eaten with baguettes and some salad, this lasted 2 meals for 7 of us!

There are tonnes of activities on site and whilst many of them are extra, which is expected in Centreparcs & no different to any other site, there are a number of included activities: the train around the park, swimming & waterslides, the petting farm, play areas, & woodland walks. These kept us entertained for most of our time and we topped this up with a few extra activities and a day out. The parc heavily advertises the local animal park & rightly so as it’s very nice. (If you book your entrance through reception, there is an offer of reduced prices).

The Bike Shack offers a range of transport hire from toddler balance bikes, to adult mountain bikes. There are some more unusual machines such as the adult + child tandems. One useful hire for those with reduced mobility is the electric bike which allows you to experience cycling without failing on the hills (of which there are quite a number). In addition to just cycles, there are electric golf carts for either 4 or 6 people. Unfortunately, by the time we had arrived, both the option of electric bike and golf buggy had gone as they had all been hired. We were told that these are bookable in advance online, although are still unable to find how on earth you book them online! Prices are also rather steep for the carts with a 6 seater being €280 for the week with an additional €500 deposit returnable required.

Thankfully, 3 of us brought our own bikes and I had my electric wheelchair trike attachment & off road tyres, so we were able to run errands whilst the others in our party used the little train. Overall, the expense of a bike rack & effort of transporting the bikes was definitely preferable.Accessibility

Getting to the cabin was a little tricky as whilst there is step free access, the slope to the cabin is quite steep with a hairpin bend. Navigating up by wheelchair was made easier by using my electric trike attachment, although the walking stick users were unable to get assistance aside from taking it slowly.

Once in, the cottage is very similar to the standard VIP cottage layout. The “accessible end” is the end with a twin & double room attached via a bathroom with Turkish bath (steam room / shower). In here, the bathroom is larger with a toilet rail – this is a single bar on the right, which appears to be standard across all disabled toilets. There is also a shower seat in the Turkish bath. For those with heat intolerance who sigh at the inclusion of a steam room & sauna in the luxury cottages, these both come with adjustable temperature settings, so we were able to enjoy the experience at much lower temperatures!

The layout of the cottage is open plan which makes navigating between areas easy and there is step free access out onto the decking. There is even a ramp down onto the grass. The kitchen is also open plan with the option of storing food in lower cupboards. The surfaces are at standard height, which suited us with only 1 wheelchair user, but meant that I couldn’t use the microwave (which was above head height) or hob. These were small niggles negated by help from family and the easy to use dishwasher & large handle taps throughout. The addition of a Dulce Gusto machine was actually very useful as I could make my own hot drinks without the need to lift a kettle; buying the coffee & hot chocolate pods for this is highly recommended!

The double rooms aren’t particularly accessible in terms of wheelchair access, although we coped with this by shoving the bed over towards the wall a bit & me not using the dressing table (with 5 bathrooms, there was plenty of alternatives!). The twin room was much more suited to wheelchair access, however this isn’t suited to married couple use!

Both ends of the cottage have whirlpool baths. With this in mind we packed my inflatable bath lift. Unfortunately, the bathrooms were not big enough to accommodate my wheelchair and close the door so I was unable to get in or out of the tub with any privacy. Neither baths had additional handrails which made this difficult for all people with mobility issues to use them. This was a shame & rather an oversight for a cottage specifically cited as accessible.
The real winner was the accessibility within the swimming pools. There are two disabled changing rooms with full changing beds & accessible showers to compliment the accessible showers alongside the main showers. To access these, you need to take your chalet key card to reception as a deposit & you are handed the key to open the changing room (“avet vous une clé pour le handicapés vestiaire si vous plait?“). In the pool area, not only was a hoist available, but as the main pool was stepless, a set of two water wheelchairs were provided for use by anybody who needed them. The lifeguards were happy to show us where the chairs were & had a supply of adult floatation jackets if needed (I have my own floatation belt & they radioed to other lifeguards that I was in the water in case I was uneasy about being in the water when the wave machine started). I was able to leave my own chair by the lifeguards station & be wheeled directly into the water, or use my own chair to go around the main areas to watch the children hurl themselves down slides, or the rapids, or along the water climbing wall!

Overall

This visit has made me a centreparcs convert. The insular nature of the place perhaps stopped us from exploring & experiencing the area in the way that we usually do, and I was utterly content to remain within the parc grounds. However, we never once felt penned in, nor compelled to do anything other than relax and enjoy our time.

This week we gave been holidaying in De Nile- it’s a lovely place where everyone is happy & having lots of fun goddammit… it’s a delicate bliss that is easily broken into the usual stomach knotting anxiety by ‘I know you’re on holiday but…’ texts and fretting that the kids (and us) are causing too much noise or dashing plans for the family we are holidaying with. We are acutely aware that it’s their holiday too, so don’t want it to be all about us. When Squooze’s shower broke, we were offered a change of chalet – Mr Geek explained that he’d turned it down as it wasn’t the end of the world & the hassle would only be worth it if the shower mummy used was broken. I could’ve smacked him! I know he meant that I can only use 1, whereas other people can share, but I hatebeing the special snowflake. He means well, but ffs.

Our actual location is Les Trois Forêts, the newest Centreparcs in France on the very East near Nancy about 45 minutes from the German border. It’s everything the adverts promise & a little more. It turns out that centreparcs is my ideal holiday location; I’ve been resisting the calls from friends for years, but my ideal day of breakfasting, then a bike ride along smooth tarmac / smooth forest trails, lunch, & then maybe a swim in the warm pool is all catered for perfectly here.
We cycled along this river today.

My chair cycle has been a permanent feature on my wheelchair this week. So much so that when I offered to take Mr Geek’s broken inner tube back up to the cycle station on my own, he agreed with no hesitation. To recap: I was able to ride to the main centre on my own without anyone fussing. Leonardo (my electric wheelchair cycle) feels like I’m just part of the cyclists here. I can whizz about with my off road tyres on the wheelchair which take almost all of the bumps away, leaving me free to quite literally feel the wind in my hair. Ok, he has a top speed of about 12 mph, and going up hill can be a struggle, and some people insist on staring, but he’s my freedom. Let them stare.

It’s interesting how much we pin on our holidays. These 2 weeks underline the other 5o where we struggle with things day to day, so somehow the other 2 must be perfect. For my part, I am pulling the “I’m fine” card and pushing myself to my absolute physical limits which has already landed me with several nights unable to sleep from pain that I refused to show during the day. Mr Geek snapped several times this week, but today he verbalised his holiday woes – following losing an offspring in the forest, (we didn’t actually lose her, she just cycled so far ahead that we had images of her being eaten by wolves & us making television pleas for her to be regurgitated by the bear that ate her. Usual rational & calm parent reactions), he stated that he would like to have some time where he didn’t have to play UN, or panic about what a child was doing. And he was right. He has been running about trying to make everyone happy – he was rewarded with chocolate & banana crêpes & an hour watching the children continue their goat induced euphoria in the petting farm whilst we leached the WiFi and played Pokemon Go (the chicken coup was a PokeStop & the enormous slide a gym!). We are both reasonably solitary creatures and he is suffering more than I am with the attack of ‘socialising’.
Interestingly, I seem to be managing physically better this week, although I’ve had a couple of flares and kept these hidden under the guise of “sleeping in”. I’m keeping up my standard routine of painkillers & TENS, but I haven’t had more than a couple of dislocations this week. I pulled my elbow out a couple of times, but as far as major injuries go, I’m doing really well.

Part of my self care in that respect was to have an “early night” last night. Actually, what that entailed was reading a bit of my book then napping on the sofa from 5pm until dinner, eating a small dinner then heading to bed with the TENS machine running a variety of cycles on my hip & pelvis, and reading well over half of my book in between naps well into the wee hours. I’m reading The Druids Sword which is part of the Shannara Chronicles- brilliantly written, but perhaps out to come with a few TWs. Mentally & physically, it was exactly what I needed & left me with a full compliment of spoons for today.
Life is not always easy with a heightened awareness of other’s emotions (such as it is with anxiety), but we are with family in beautiful surroundings & enjoying land & water. It doesn’t have to be perfect, because what we will remember is the riding through the forest & rescuing a small child from a locked toiled (always carry a 2p coin for this purpose!) & the late night card games & the food & feeding the cats paté. And of course the goats. We’ll always have the goats… note to self: must double check Beanpole’s luggage…